Piccolo is Closing. Welcome Tenant!

Doug Flicker in his kitchen at Piccolo restaurant

Piccolo

2016 is fixing to kill us, wouldn't you say? The latest blow: Piccolo, one of the best restaurants in the history of the Twin Cities, called better than Alinea by Anthony Bourdain, is closing in March.

"I'm super happy about it," Doug Flicker, chef and owner of both Piccolo and summer-only beach shack Sandcastle, who is about to launch Esker Grove, the new Walker Art Center restaurant opening December 13. "I accomplished everything I set out to do, and it's been a great seven years. But times have changed, and I have changed, so it's time to do something different," Flicker told me. "Change is good, this is change."

With that thought I plunged into the wayback machine, recalling seven years ago when Flicker opened Piccolo as a call for change, largely in revolt to plate-filling mounds of proteins and starches which he felt were deadening palates and boring him to tears. Piccolo, of course, means small, and it referred to the delicate, small little jewels the restaurant became famous for, as well as the tiny size of the restaurant itself, a mere 18 seats. What's next for the diminutive jewel on the prairie?

Welcome Tenant!

Piccolo is being sold to the longtime sous of the restaurant, Cameron Cecchini, a Lakeville native who helped open Borough and Coup d'Etat, and has cooked at Chicago's well regarded Schwa. Cecchini will own and run this new restaurant Tenant, with one of Piccolo's current cooks, Grisha Hammes.

And get this: They're going to close for a month to make Piccolo smaller. "We're going to open up the kitchen and put in an eight-seat diner bar that's open to the kitchen," Cecchini told me, "which will take the dining room down to eight seats, so 16 seats total." The plan is for Tenant—a sort of inside joke, as Flicker still owns the building—is for it to have a very limited menu that changes all the time, offering five or more courses in a tasting menu for around $50. There will be non-tasting-menu options, too. "It's what I want when I'm going out on my day off," says Cecchini. "I want to get some good food, not spend three hours doing it—high-end food at a low price point." Cecchini thinks, with the success of Travail and Birdie, that tasting menus are no longer thought of as special-occasion destinations and are becoming everyday food. What kind of grub can we expect at Tenant? "I'm always big on stuffed pasta and crudo," said Cecchini. "I'd be surprised if there's ever a week without stuffed pasta and crudo." There also may be brunch, once the crew gets past getting open and getting comfortable with the workings of the new spot.

But wait. There's more.

In talking to Flicker, it became clear that he and his wife Amy Greeley have another project in the works for 2017. "I hate it when people talk about things that aren't signed," he said. "I won't do it." So we played guessing games for a while. "I can't do barbecue, because Thomas Boemer's ruined that." Burgers? "There are going to be burgers involved for sure," he said. "It's just not close enough to proclaim to the world that it's done."

Well! Very interesting indeed. We will wait patiently. But until that next shoe drops, make your Piccolo reservations folks, it was the biggest tiny success ever. And call me if you see Doug Flicker and a realtor walking around vacant buildings, I'm dying to know.

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Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl was born in New York City little aware of her destiny—to eat out a lot in Minnesota. Dara is the other half of our star food and dining team, working side by side with Stephanie March.